With the evolutionary change in information and communication technologies （ICT）, the definition of literacy has undergone substantial change to include the skills and strategies required to successfully adapt to th...With the evolutionary change in information and communication technologies （ICT）, the definition of literacy has undergone substantial change to include the skills and strategies required to successfully adapt to the rapidly changing ICT contexts. This new definition presents an urgent need to acknowledge the gap between the types of reading experiences students come across at school and those they regularly practice outside the school. One way to bridge such gap is to expand the reading instruction to incorporate electronic reading device, like Kindle, to engage students in electronic reading. Many e-books feature multimodal functionalities, including audio, video, hyperlinks, and interactive tools. Research on this form of reading is still in its infancy in spite of some positive prospects for fostering literacy development and reading comprehension. Therefore, adopting a mixed method approach with 36 college freshmen in central Taiwan, the current study intended to fill in the void by investigating any difference in readers＇ reading comprehension and reading motivation, between the Kindle group and the print-based group. The results indicate that embedding aspects of technology into a traditional reading instruction boosted the participants＇ motivation to read. Nevertheless, the novelty-driven enthusiasm for electronic reading might not sustain students＇ reading motivation long enough to cultivate long-lasting reading habits. The results indicate that there was no significant difference in reading comprehension between two groups. Implications for utilizing electronic readers in EFL classes are also provided.展开更多
In order to meet the trend of China＇s rapid economic and social development and the internationalization of higher education, a new round of college English teaching reform is ready to start. Following the pilot refo...In order to meet the trend of China＇s rapid economic and social development and the internationalization of higher education, a new round of college English teaching reform is ready to start. Following the pilot reform by colleges and universities in Beijing, some colleges and universities in Shanghai will also initiate college English teaching reform program this fall. According to SCETFR （Shanghai College English Teaching Frame of Reference）, the core of the new round of reform is to replace the traditional integral or comprehensive English with academic English, and through which to strive to improve students＇ English language ability in academic study and profession, and help them build a strong competence in international exchanges and competitions. The author, based on the status quo of China＇s current college English teaching, made some forward-looking predictions to the reform, and put forward some constructive proposals and measures展开更多
Interaction is an important standard to detect teachers＇ teaching quality and effect in college English classroom teaching and is the most eagerly expected by all English teachers. During the process of classroom tea...Interaction is an important standard to detect teachers＇ teaching quality and effect in college English classroom teaching and is the most eagerly expected by all English teachers. During the process of classroom teaching, bad interaction or failure of interaction often makes teachers frustrated. One of the major reasons is that they ask improper questions in class. The purpose of this paper focuses on the skills of raising effective questions by teachers in order to produce good interaction from students. The method to achieve this purpose is by introducing Socratic Questioning method, which is showed by teachers＇ narrative research based on the author＇s own real classroom teaching with detailed explanation. The result of the experiment shows that Socratic Questioning method is not only a good example of effective questioning but also produces sufficient interaction between teacher-to-students and students-to-students. Generally speaking, this paper expects to have contribution to the effect of interaction so as to help more college English teachers have more excellent classroom teaching.展开更多
文摘With the evolutionary change in information and communication technologies （ICT）, the definition of literacy has undergone substantial change to include the skills and strategies required to successfully adapt to the rapidly changing ICT contexts. This new definition presents an urgent need to acknowledge the gap between the types of reading experiences students come across at school and those they regularly practice outside the school. One way to bridge such gap is to expand the reading instruction to incorporate electronic reading device, like Kindle, to engage students in electronic reading. Many e-books feature multimodal functionalities, including audio, video, hyperlinks, and interactive tools. Research on this form of reading is still in its infancy in spite of some positive prospects for fostering literacy development and reading comprehension. Therefore, adopting a mixed method approach with 36 college freshmen in central Taiwan, the current study intended to fill in the void by investigating any difference in readers＇ reading comprehension and reading motivation, between the Kindle group and the print-based group. The results indicate that embedding aspects of technology into a traditional reading instruction boosted the participants＇ motivation to read. Nevertheless, the novelty-driven enthusiasm for electronic reading might not sustain students＇ reading motivation long enough to cultivate long-lasting reading habits. The results indicate that there was no significant difference in reading comprehension between two groups. Implications for utilizing electronic readers in EFL classes are also provided.
文摘In order to meet the trend of China＇s rapid economic and social development and the internationalization of higher education, a new round of college English teaching reform is ready to start. Following the pilot reform by colleges and universities in Beijing, some colleges and universities in Shanghai will also initiate college English teaching reform program this fall. According to SCETFR （Shanghai College English Teaching Frame of Reference）, the core of the new round of reform is to replace the traditional integral or comprehensive English with academic English, and through which to strive to improve students＇ English language ability in academic study and profession, and help them build a strong competence in international exchanges and competitions. The author, based on the status quo of China＇s current college English teaching, made some forward-looking predictions to the reform, and put forward some constructive proposals and measures
文摘Interaction is an important standard to detect teachers＇ teaching quality and effect in college English classroom teaching and is the most eagerly expected by all English teachers. During the process of classroom teaching, bad interaction or failure of interaction often makes teachers frustrated. One of the major reasons is that they ask improper questions in class. The purpose of this paper focuses on the skills of raising effective questions by teachers in order to produce good interaction from students. The method to achieve this purpose is by introducing Socratic Questioning method, which is showed by teachers＇ narrative research based on the author＇s own real classroom teaching with detailed explanation. The result of the experiment shows that Socratic Questioning method is not only a good example of effective questioning but also produces sufficient interaction between teacher-to-students and students-to-students. Generally speaking, this paper expects to have contribution to the effect of interaction so as to help more college English teachers have more excellent classroom teaching.
